This policy covers the Chiron apps for iPad, iPhone, and Mac and the Chiron server, published by Akartis Consulting, LLC. The short version: Chiron is self-hosted, your data stays on your devices and on the server you run, and Akartis does not collect it.
What Chiron is
Chiron is an adaptive textbook. The app connects to a Chiron server that you, or someone acting for you, run on your own computer or hosting. The server holds your reading material and your learner record and calls a language model to write and tutor. Akartis Consulting, LLC publishes the software and does not operate a server on your behalf unless you have arranged that with us directly and in writing.
Information stored on your device
The app keeps the following on the device, in the app’s own container, so that reading works without the server:
- Chapters, imported documents, saved web pages, and their pictures
- Your highlights, annotations, and Apple Pencil marks
- Your reading position, answers, confidence ratings, and progress
- The address and key of the server you connected to
Deleting the app removes all of it. Nothing is stored in iCloud by the app.
Information sent to your server
When the server is reachable, the app sends it:
- Passages you highlight and the questions you ask about them
- Documents, files, and links you add to the shelf, and feeds you follow
- Your answers to checks and exercises, with the confidence you recorded
- Reading progress and marks, so they sync to your other devices
All of this goes to the server you configured and nowhere else. The server stores it in its state directory on the machine where it runs.
Language model providers
The server sends text to whichever model engine it is configured with, so that the model can write, grade, and answer. Depending on that configuration, the text may go to:
- A local model running through LM Studio on your own machine. Nothing leaves the machine.
- The Anthropic API, using your own API key. Anthropic’s handling of that data is governed by Anthropic’s privacy policy and your agreement with them.
- Claude Code on your own subscription. Handled under your Anthropic account terms.
You choose the engine when you set up the server. Akartis is not a party to those requests and does not see them.
When the server is out of reach and the device supports Apple Intelligence, a question is answered by Apple’s on-device model. That processing happens on the device.
Camera
The app asks for camera access only to read the setup code shown by the server or by your other device, so that you do not have to type the server’s address and key. Images from the camera are not stored or transmitted.
What Akartis collects
Nothing. The app contains no analytics, advertising, or tracking code, and no third-party software development kits that report to anyone. There is no Akartis account to create. We learn about your use of Chiron only if you write to us.
If you install through TestFlight, Apple provides us with crash logs and the feedback you choose to send, under Apple’s TestFlight terms. Crash logs identify the device model and OS version, not you.
Retention and deletion
Data on your device is kept until you delete it or the app. Data on the server is kept until you remove it from the server’s state directory. Email you send us is kept for as long as it is useful for helping you.
Children
Chiron is not directed at children under 13, and Akartis does not knowingly collect information from them.
Changes
Changes to this policy will be posted here with a new effective date. Material changes will also be noted in the app’s release notes.
Contact
Questions about this policy go to hello@akartis.net or to Akartis Consulting, LLC, 4900 N Kenneth Ave, Chicago, IL 60630, United States.